Mulch has to be the single best thing you can do for your garden plants and get the best results from. You can take a drab looking landscape, apply mulch around the plants and garden areas and by evening, the same drab landscape looks as though it was maintained professionally. The sole purpose of mulch is to protect the soil. It should allow enough air space and for water to percolate down to the ground.

The reasons to mulch can go on and on. However, let's talk about a few of them. It creates enough of a defined area around trees and shrubs so that anyone with a mower or weed eater will avoid damaging the plants, and that maybe the most common reason as to the demise of younger plants. Mulching reduces and often eliminates the weed population. It insulates the soil by keeping it at a more even temperature, which is especially helpful during the spring temperature fluctuations.Mulch keeps the soil immediately around the plants cooler and moister. Organic mulch decomposes into the soil building up the nutrient values, thus reducing the need for applying fertilizer. It prevents the soil from compacting and crusting. Mulch helps to grow healthier plants and makes the landscape look neater, cleaner and more attractive. Studies show that trees and larger shrubs without any grass up to 3 feet away from the base of the plants will increase the growth of the plants.